The sporting year part 1: Mixed medal bag for Scotland as Delhi disaster avoided

Published on Sunday 26 December 2010 11:49

WITH under a fortnight to go before the start of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, there were many who regarded them as a disaster waiting to happen. Others were less optimistic, thinking they would not happen at all.

Scotland's team management, frustrated at the lack of urgency shown by the organisers, had released photos which revealed the squalid state of the athletes' living quarters. Some of those due to compete, such as Scottish tennis player Elena Baltacha and English triple-jumper Phillips Idowu, responded by withdrawing on health grounds, swelling the ranks of stayaways which already included stars such as Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

The collapse of a pedestrian bridge on an approach to a stadium showed that not only athletes would have concerns about safety. And bookmakers, all too conscious of rising political tensions on the Indian sub-continent, declared that the chances of a major terrorist incident during the 11 days of competition were 50-50.

As several teams delayed their departure for Delhi, there was a brief time when the odds on the event going ahead were little better. But then, stung into action, the Indian authorities at last got their act together. The village was made ready, the army rebuilt the footbridge in record time, and a 100,000-strong security force ensured that the Games proceeded peacefully.

Problems remained, with poor attendances at some venues being particularly embarrassing for the organisers. But by the time of the closing ceremony, the fear that the future of the Games themselves was under threat had evaporated.

Glasgow will be expected to run the event more smoothly in four years' time, but it will be hard-pressed to emulate some aspects of the 2010 Games. The opening and closing ceremonies were spectacular successes, for instance, and the unflagging helpfulness and hospitality shown by the citizens of Delhi was exemplary.

Once that opening ceremony was out of the way, the competition began slowly for Scotland. In Melbourne four years earlier our swimmers had got off to an excellent start, ensuring that for a brief, glorious period early in the competition we topped the medal tables.

But of the three competitors who each won two gold medals in the pool in 2006, one, Gregor Tait, had retired, and another, Caitlin McClatchey, had had her season blighted by illness.

The third, David Carry, was still in good form in Delhi, but when he won Scotland's first medal of the Games in the 400-metres freestyle it was a bronze rather than gold.

Carry went on to win silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay, and Michael Jamieson also claimed a second place, in the 200m breast-stroke. The star performers in the pool, however, were Robbie Renwick, our first gold medallist of the Games in the 200 free, and Hannah Miley, champion in the 400 individual medley.While there was no disputing the quality of some individual swims, the debate will go on for some time about how the aquatics team of 2010 compared to their predecessors. The 2006 tally of six gold medals was always going to be a tough one to match, and in many ways the team's performance then was exceptional.

Viewed in that light, the lesser achievement of 2010 cannot be regarded as negligible. But, if we simply write off a particular high point as exceptional, we run the risk of failing to discover why it worked so well and how it might be repeated.

In that sense Delhi was a disappointment for Scotland's swimmers. The diving pool, by contrast, was the scene of some success. Solo synchro swimmer Lauren Smith became our first-ever medallist in the event when she won bronze, and diver Grace Reid, at 14 the youngest member of the entire team, recorded a personal best in coming sixth.

While recognised world-class competitors such as Miley and Renwick had been expected to do well, Scots in other sports surpassed expectations - none more so than tennis players Colin Fleming and Jocelyn Rae. The scratch partnership defeated several seeded pairs on their way to victory in the mixed doubles, and Rae's winner in the final at a minute to midnight was for many of us the single most memorable moment of the Games.

In the absence of Sir Chris Hoy, the Scottish track cycling team was always going to struggle to match its achievements of past Games. Flagbearer Ross Edgar had been fancied to do well in the keirin but was unable to win a medal, and in the end the only success was a silver for Jenny Davis and Charline Joiner in the women's team sprint.

On the road, however, David Millar was in excellent form. Just days after flying in from the world championships in Australia, Millar won bronze in the road race, and he followed that up five days later with gold in an imperious performance in the time trial.

While there were mitigating circumstances in the failure by our cycling and swimming teams to match past glories, there was little reason to view our showing in track and field so charitably. For the third Games in a row, Scottish athletes won just one silver and one bronze, and perhaps more worryingly, there were again some events in which we had no representatives.Given the fact that athletics remains the cornerstone of the Commonwealth Games, and that some of Scotland's greatest performances in the history of the Games have come from athletes, this is a source of genuine concern.

On the other hand, the spirit shown by both 2010 medallists, 400m hurdles runner-up Eilidh Child and 1,500m bronze winner Steph Twell, provided real hope for the future. Both had to show real mental toughness to claim those podium places: Child by battling her way to second after coming off the last hurdle in third or fourth, Twell by hanging on to third in the face of some world-class opposition. Elsewhere, though, there was a worrying lack of character. Scottish athletics is still stagnating, and a lot of work needs to be done in the ensuing four years if we are to witness even a respectable showing in Glasgow.

Our shooters, by contrast, excelled themselves in Delhi. Jennifer McIntosh and Kay Copland won a gold and a bronze between them in the pairs, and McIntosh added an individual gold as well. Jonathan Hammond and Neil Stirton also claimed a first and a third, and Hammond took a gold and a silver in the individual events to go a notch better than McIntosh - and become the most successful Scot of all time at a single Commonwealth Games.

Originally from Banchory, but based for some time in the United States, where he coaches a university team, Hammond provided an interesting insight into the whole issue of funding for sport when he talked about his day job. "College sports in the States is huge," he said. "It's a different world. We have 16 or 17 sports in the athletics department, and a budget of $50million."

Given the disparate sources of financing for the nearly 200 individuals who made up the Scottish team - some, for example, are part of wider Great Britain programmes - it is impossible to come up with an overall budgetary figure for the squad who went to Delhi. What can be said with some confidence, however, is that it nowhere close to $50m.

In some sports, funding remains minimal, and two of those showed real value for money by producing medals. Boxing captain Callum Johnson led by example, taking gold in the 81kg category. And, in weightlifting, Peter Kirkbride claimed a silver, missing out on gold by just one kilo.

The final medals tally of 26 - nine gold, ten silver and seven bronze - exceeded the team management's own prediction. Seven sports yielded medals, but ten did not, including, most surprisingly, bowls.

From a Scottish point of view, then, Delhi was a mixed bag. Although not quite as successful overall as in Melbourne, the team showed progress in some areas, and, as we look ahead to Glasgow, a number of non-medal- winning performances displayed distinct promise.

Perhaps more importantly, team morale remained high in the face of some testing circumstances.The first full week of competition was underwhelming - the gold for Rae and Fleming was Scotland's third, and came on Day Seven - but the medal rush in the last four days was testament to the team's togetherness.

As for the Games as a whole, a similar verdict would be appropriate. They did not hit the heights of Melbourne or Manchester, but they did prove that the event need not be confined to the affluent west. And, after the atmosphere of impending doom which pervaded the build-up to the Games, that in itself was a triumph.